Language+exposure



Do you need to be totally immersed in English to learn and achieve in English?

Thinking that the more exposure students have to English the more they will achieve in English also arose from the 1900s way of seeing knowledge stored in two different parts of the brain and being non-transferable(See Learning in Two or more Languages). In addition it was thought that one language would decrease as one learnt the second language as was the case with [|Sujata Bhatt] who wrote a poem which cries out the agony of trying to suppress the heritage language in order to function in the second language.

This understanding lasted through to the 1970s when other theories of language development started to emerge such as Cummins' idea 1  that it didn't matter which language you were operating in because the thoughts come from the same central engine (see iceberg analogy).Cummins proposes that people have the capacity to both maintain two or more languages as well as function in those languages. The two are interrelated and if the heritage language is fully developed then that will enrich the thinking in the second language as the student is looking for new words to what they already know as well as bringing an understanding of what they already know and applying that to the new learning. At the same time if the heritage language is not well developed and the student is not working well in the second langauge either, then the academic performance will be negatively affected which again underscores the importance of developing the heritage language.

The implications for teaching is the need to encourage students to value and develop their heritage language and to give them room to operate in that language if they need to for them to come to an understanding of the concepts being taught in the second language, English.

1. Cummins, J. (2001) //Negotiating Identities: Education for Empowerment in a Diverse Society (Second Edition)//. Los Angeles, CA : California Association for Bilingual Education